Alleged Abuse At Orthodox-Founded 'Cure The Gays' Program

NEW YORK – Truth
Wins Out (TWO) released an exclusive video statement today from two
former clients of “ex-gay” life coach Alan Downing. The clients, Ben
Unger and Chaim Levin, alleged that during individual therapy sessions,
Downing (pictured) made them undress in front of a mirror and touch
their bodies while the significantly older therapist watched. Unger and
Levin call the sessions a “psychological striptease” and believe they
were harmed by what they consider unprofessional behavior and sexual
misconduct.

Downing, who admits he is still attracted to men, is a major player
in the “ex-gay” industry and a practitioner of so-called “reparative
therapy”. He is the lead therapist for Jews Offering New Alternatives to
Homosexuality (JONAH) and is listed on the People Can Change website as
a “Senior Trainer” for Journey into Manhood, which is a controversial
“ex-gay” backwoods retreat designed to supposedly make gay men more
masculine.

“These dysfunctional, unscientific programs are rife with
sexual impropriety and need to be shut down,” said Truth Wins Out’s
Executive Director Wayne Besen. “Too often, repressed ‘ex-gay’ quacks
pretend they are trying to get into your head when they are really
trying to get into your pants. They call what they do reparative
therapy, but it’s more like re-perv-ative therapy.”

“He was encouraging me, ‘it’s okay Ben, you can take your shirt
off’…here was a man that was much older than me, and I was around 20,”
said Ben Unger, a former client of Alan Downing. “At that point, I was
just staring at a mirror with my shirt off and he was right behind me
staring at the mirror with me at my body. Then telling me to look at my
body and feel my body. It was weird.”

“While I was standing there without my clothes on, he asked me to
touch my genitals,” says former Downing client Chaim Levin. “Once again,
I communicated that I was not comfortable with it. And he was like, you
know, ‘just feel yourself. Just feel it for a second. So, you can grasp
your masculinity physically.’”

“If you believe having a closeted gay therapist undressing clients
makes one straight, than you’ll believe that playing doctor makes one a
brain surgeon,” said TWO’s Besen. “The concept is both outrageous and
ridiculous and these sick, exploitative practices should be abandoned
immediately.”

JONAH was co-founded by Arthur Abba Goldberg,
a Wall Street criminal mastermind who was convicted in 1987 of “fraud
of spectacular scope”. Upon completing parole, Goldberg secretly
reinvented himself as a moral leader who “cures” gay and lesbian people.
Known as “Abba Dabba Do” in the financial world, Goldberg was sentenced
to 18 months in jail for bilking poor communities with complicated bond
schemes and served six months in prison.

“Given the sordid history of JONAH, this latest scandal
is not too surprising,” said TWO’s Besen. “This is an unscrupulous
organization of high moral turpitude that has few qualms about harming
desperate and vulnerable clients. This group has consistently been tied
to bizarre, sexually suggestive methods that are unsettling, dangerous
and ineffective.”

Journey into Manhood, where Downing is a counselor, exhibits similar
eyebrow raising techniques. Writer Ted Cox infiltrated this peculiar
program and was surprised to find
what he called, “homoerotic exercises” and a cabin that he called “The
Cuddle Room” because it was a space where supposedly “ex-gay” men gave
each other inappropriate massages.

“Apparently some of the guys in one cabin threw their
mattresses into the middle of the room and had an all-night holding
session,” said one of the men attending the Journey into Manhood
session, according to Cox’s article.

“How ironic that therapists that claim to cure homosexuals keep
ending up naked with their gay clients,” said TWO’s Besen. “Such lurid
exploitation has moved from a disconcerting pattern to a full-blown
trend and it needs to be investigated by the authorities.”

Truth Wins Out is a non-profit organization that fights religious
extremism. TWO monitors anti-LGBT organizations, documents their lies
and exposes their leaders as charlatans. TWO specializes in turning
information into action by organizing, advocating and fighting for LGBT
equality.

It's the same Arthur Goldberg whose a lecturer at Peter LaBarbera's (Porno Pete) "Truth Academy" which is coming up in early August.
Why should I be surprised? Peter is little more than a Nazi himself!!
Hopefully this evil event will be protested!!

Adam: Between this post and the one you posted about consciousness on an earlier thread, and your multitude of prophetic posts implying that you may be the Messiah, since we're talking technical points now, is it fair to conclude that you are schizophrenic and off your meds?

What are you Adam, a developmental psychologist? I know plenty of gay people who didn't have "traumatic conditioning" in early childhood. And regarding the "gay gene", there is a growing body of scientific research which indicates a hereditary factor in the predisposition to homosexuality. No, a "gay gene" hasn't been identified, but looking for a single gene to be the only possible biological determinant amounts to Junior High genetics knowledge. Congratulations on your accomplishment.

Well, when "Homosexuality is [NOT] a result of traumatic conditioning in early childhood.." It is, from what I have seen, empirically speaking, a result of traumatic conditining when older.
Ex: women who are raped often turn to gay lifestyle.
seen it.

This is an interesting halachic discussion. If I'm not mistaken, there is a Teshuva in the Igros Moshe regarding whether encouraging body awareness including masturbation on female imagery is allowed to get someone away from homosexuality. Rav Moshe does not explicitly permit it. What's going on here is not normative therapy and it's seriously doubtful these people are licensed.

But since you've given a hat tip to Vicki "dead baby" Polin, is lying on Oprah allowed?

Have you read any books by the following authors - Lenore Terr, Judith Lewis Herman, Jeffrey Masson, Jennifer Freyd or Alice Miller ?

I don't take drugs of any sort. An occasional aspirin is about it. Please watch your slander !

To YAIR...

I am proud of the expertise I have in a number of areas. I am self taught in many fields. Early childhood development, traumatic conditioning, repression and consciousness are some of the areas I can claim knowledge in. Not enough space here to expound on what I am aware of. I am careful with my public statements. I can back up my assertions. I enjoy throwing truth cats into a flock of denial pigeons. The prophecies are clear that at some point in human history various previously hidden truths will be revealed, much to the chagrin of various people. I am used to encountering people with conceptual limitations but I cannot give up on what I know to be true. G-d is my greatest ally.

I am gay. I have a wonderful family and no so-called trauma. So, basically you have no clue what you are talking about when it comes to causation of homosexuality. You are flat our smearing gay people with your fake science and propaganda.

People are just gay. Period. It has zero to do with upbringing, since gay people come from every kind of family imaginable. Given the overwhelming, incontrovertible evidence of this simple fact, it is astounding that you would regurgitate such a false meme.

What you suggest about gay people is rejected by every respected medical and mental health organization in the world. This includes the American Medical Association, American Psychiatric Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Counseling Association.

So, basically, Adam, you are no expert. You are a ordinary person with an ignorant bias, that pretends to be an expert by distorting real research to fit your narrow viewpoint. There is a word for such people and it is "ideologue".

By the way - great video and article about those Orthodox guys who were subject to that abusive Alan Downing non-therapist!

I hope they pursue legal action against him, although I could understand if they don't want to put themselves through the extreme hassle and expense.

And can you please tell the guys who put themselves out there on the video that they were very brave to do so, and that there are those of us in the Modern Orthodox world who have respect for them and are sorry for what they went through.

I don't know what repressed memory has to do with this, but I'm used to schizophrenic patients "reading" a book or two and deciding from that they have unlocked the secrets of the universe, etc. I'm guessing you don't actually have formal training in anything, as you suggest, certainly not molecular biology.

I'm sure you'll be a fine messiah when your prophecies are revealed. Now take your pills like the doctors suggested.

I think it's a brilliant idea to cure homosexuals... but you gotta put out some real juicy babes, not mere pictures! Having some bearded male watch you while you wank will not cure your backdoor itches, certainly not as much as a Beis Rivka senior with a strap on. (Melbourne uniforms are best, please).

In fact, I think I'm gonna hire some tomboyish hos from the itty bitty titty site to, um, cure me of my latent tendencies once and for good.

Damn, missed the YU connection! Ginsburgh, like Dr. Baruch "HaGever" Goldstein, got their Torah U'Mada at YU!!!! Ginsburgh's bio says he got a masters at Belfer Graduate School. Though he omits the YU part in the bio, Belfer is YU's grad school. I guess the MO credentials don't look that good in Harediland.

I am supremely confident in my current views on various subjects. I suffer from no mental illness. I love the mind that G-d has blessed me with. You have no idea of the depth, range and discoveries of my life experience. The only reason I am answering to your slander is because I feel like a bit of defence today. Moses was described as "being with the days", i.e. He absorbed an enormous amount of information, divine insight etc, and had to deal with it. He was a tool of the divine will. I am used to dealing with people with conceptual limitations. So many people are unaware that they are unaware. You're comments are like water off a duck's back. Quack, quack.

P.S. What is your real name ? It doesn't matter if you don't tell me. People who undermine the righteous are usually dealt with in interesting ways.

Someone is implying 5-ARD is related to sexuality. Hm... I suspect otherwise, but that isn't the point here. When dealing with behaviors (or any syndromes) that are far outside the social norm, one should realize that watching a lot of Jerry Springer episodes is entirely insufficient for understanding what is really going on, let alone a research issue. Until one does a whole of (serious) reading one will probably not even know what questions to ask. Only a lot of experience in a field will yield insight. I think one must consult actual experts who have *experience*.

I have advised him, when presenting, to present data. Unfortunately, there is little data on the successes of Reparative Therapy as it has not been sufficiently studied. Goldberg does have anecdotal evidence in the men and women JONAH has helped.

I think we can all agree that Reparative Therapy deserves a Scientific Study to determine its efficacy in those with unwanted same-sex attraction.